NYC ACM SIGGRAPH and The New York Institute of Technology present a panel that will explore recent developments in digital art as they relate to contemporary art. Galleries and museums are embracing this art form with exhibitions and performances by both contemporary artists, as well as the pioneers who invented it. In many of the works, the technology used to make it is an integral part of the experience, and in others the technology is used as a creative partner and virtually invisible. Ultimately, the issue is an aesthetic one and not technical. The traditional definitions of fine art as drawing, painting and sculpture are expanding to include new hybrid works. While out of date, as nothing is forever new, the term “new media” is being transmuted into media art, hybrid art and other definitions. Panelists will include Manfred Mohr, a pioneer of digital art who programmed his first drawings in 1969 using algorithmic geometry, Robert Michael Smith, a sculptor who uses digital and traditional methods, Toni Dove, an artist who whose creative work embodies hybrids of film, installation art and experimental theater and Bruce Wands, an artist and author of Art of the Digital Age, published by Thames & Hudson in 2006. Artists will present their work and ideas on the relationship between digital and contemporary art. This will be followed by a wider discussion of the future of art and a question and answer session.

Panelist Bios:

Manfred Mohr is considered a pioneer of digital art. After discovering Prof. Max Bense's information aesthetics in the early 1960's, Mohr's artistic thinking was radically changed. Within a few years, his art transformed from abstract expressionism to computer generated algorithmic geometry. Encouraged by the computer music composer Pierre Barbaud whom he met in 1967, Mohr programmed his first computer drawings in 1969.

Robert Michael Smith is a digital sculptor and Associate Professor of Fine Arts at New York Institute of Technology Fine Arts Department. Smith has been an active pioneer of digital sculpture including 3D visualization/animation, digital imaging, rapid prototyping, Web design, VRML virtual sculptures for the Web, and virtual actors for computer gaming. Smith is currently developing art projects that will utilize bio-engineering, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

During 2008 - 2009 Robert Michael Smith was a featured artist of “Digital Stone”, an exhibition sponsored by Autodesk that toured contemporary art museums throughout China, including Beijing Today Art Museum, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Jinse Gallery at Chongqing, and Art Map Gallery, Wenzhou. Smith’s art is included in the permanent collections of China National Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing, China; Autodesk Design Museum, San Francisco, CA; Contemporary Art Museum, Datong, China, and Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan.

Toni Dove lives and works in New York City. Known internationally as a pioneer of interactive cinema, she has produced hybrid performance and installation work since the early 1990s fusing film, game or instrument based interaction, and experimental theater. In her work, performers and participants interact with an unfolding narrative, using interface technologies such as motion sensing, iPad and laser harp to "perform" on-screen avatars.

Dove was the recipient of the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts from M.I.T She served by appointment on the 2000/2003 Government Advisory Committee on Information Technology and Creativity, National Research Council. She has performed and exhibited internationally at the Rotterdam Film festival, the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media, American Museum of the Moving Image in New York,'Future Cinema' at ZKM, Karlsruhe and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma Helsinki,The Spielart Festival, Munich,The Kitchen NYC and many others.

Moderator Bio:

Bruce Wands has been involved with digital media and music for more than thirty-five years as an artist, musician, writer, curator and educator. His creative work explores the relationship between visual art, music, mathematics and the invention of new forms of narrative. Current projects include abstract digital images based on Buddhist geometry and electroacoustic multi-channel music installations. Time Out New York named Bruce as one of the “99 People to Watch in 1999”. His books are Art of the Digital Age, Thames & Hudson, and Digital Creativity, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Grants include the NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, NYSCA, and NESTA UK. Bruce is Chair of the MFA Computer Art Department, Founding Chair of the BFA Computer Art Department, and Director of Computer Education at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He is the Director of the New York Digital Salon, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2013. His website is www.brucewands.com.

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